Cuban became a billionaire when he
sold Broadcast.com, originally Audionet, to Yahoo for $5.7B.
Cuban built Broadcast.com into an online powerhouse after co-founding
it with earnings from the sale of his company MicroSolutions in the
80s, an early reseller of Lotus Notes. Broadcast.com at its
peak featured 420 radio stations and networks; 56 TV stations and
cable networks; and live game coverage of over 450 college and
professional teams.

He used his wealth to buy the
Dallas Mavericks and while a blogger himself, has recently taken a
rather scornful attitude to the internet, which made him wealthy.
He recently created a stir when he became the first team owner to ban
bloggers from an NBA locker room.

At the CTAM conference,
Cuban's new anti-internet sentiment became vitriolic. He
addressed the panel which consisted of cable systems providers stating, "The
Internet’s for old people."

Cuban claims the internet
has stagnated and that the only new
invention on the internet was YouTube. Cuban, however, went
to argue that YouTube is nothing more than a sham based on copyright
infringement and represents little real creativity. Cuban feels
that cable and satellite networks have overtaken the internet in
providing complex interactive services. Cuban says he once
thought the internet would be superior for providing such services,
but remarks, "I was wrong."

He points to the
openness of collections of cable networks versus networks built by
telephone companies like Verizon, which are stymied by problems
talking to each other. Cuban envisions cable services offering
users suites of office applications or other complex utilities,
something he says would allow them to leverage their superiority to
"outgoogle” Google.

While Cuban believes strongly that
cable intranets are superior to internet, most experts think his
claims are very off base. They state that his proposed cable
systems applications sound remarkably similar to the cable television
network flop @Home, which attempted to market a higher-speed
"private" internet, that was separate from the normal
internet.

While Cuban is known for a flare for histrionics and
outbursts, his collected, deliberate speech about his animosity for
the internet is sure to stir up a great deal of controversy.

"Well, there may be a reason why they call them 'Mac' trucks! Windows machines will not be trucks." -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer